Trailing by 11 points midway through the third period, and struggling on both the offensive and defensive ends, the switch to man-to-man defense triggered a 29-9 run over the final 12:32 as the Brownwood Lady Lions rallied for a 49-40 victory over the Merkel Lady Badgers Friday night at Warren Gym.
“I knew this group would be able to change defenses, but going man-to-man really sparked us by getting some steals and turnovers, and that really got us going offensively,” said Lady Lions 15th-year head coach Heather Hohertz. “I’m proud that we faced adversity and were able to battle back from being down. That’s what you want to see from your team.”
Still trailing 37-35 with 4:27 left in the game, Hannah Dean scored on a drive to the bucket that knotted the score at 37. Then, with 3:39 left, Kimber Green drained one of her four three-pointers in the fourth quarter to push the Lady Lions in front for good, 40-37.
Merkel scored its final point on a free throw with 2:53 to go, and Green immediately answered with a trey at the other end, staking the Lady Lions to a 45-40 lead with 2:28 remaining and providing a bit of breathing room.
Green and Deen, who combined to score just 10 points over the first three quarters after pouring in 49 between them on opening night, teamed up to score all 20 Brownwood points in the fourth quarter. Green finished with 20 points for the game and Deen contributed 10.
“At any point in time those two can go off and they struggled the first three quarters,” Hohertz said. “I kept encouraging them to keep shooting and to have that next shot mentality. Kimber really got going in the fourth quarter and we fed off her from there.”
Merkel (1-1), which was coming off a 47-44 season-opening win over Abilene Cooper, was sparked by 16 points from Brooklynn Fulfer, 13 from Jaedyn Lee and nine points from Alle Farmer in building a 31-20 edge.
But Brownwood closed the game on a 14-3 run, after using a 15-3 surge once Merkel’s lead reached double digits to grab a one-point edge just 42 seconds into the final period. The first rally began with a three-pointer from an unlikely source in varsity newcomer Rylie Schaffer. With Brownwood still down 34-29 after three periods, Green then drained consecutive three-pointers and all of the sudden the Lady Lions owned a 35-34 advantage with 7:18 to go, their first since being in front 4-3 with 4:19 left in the first period.
“Things weren’t going real well for us and you looked at our body language and we were kind of down,” Hohertz said. “But we went on a run, got back into the game, the energy comes back and it shows them they can face adversity and still be successful.”
After shooting 45 percent from the floor in Tuesday’s 67-54 season-opening win over Eastland, Brownwood converted just 34 percent (17 of 49) of its field goals, 33 percent (6 of 18) of its three-pointers, and 37 percent (9 of 24) of its free throws. The Lady Lions also committed 23 turnovers, but 12 steals on the defensive end and 42 rebounds helped spark the comeback.
Icess Hall kept the Lady Lions within striking distance in the first two and a half quarters, scoring all 10 of her points in that stretch before Green and Deen caught fire. Miranda Northcutt, Nylah Hall and Schaffer contributed three points apiece.
“This was a team win,” Hohertz said. “Nylah Hall came off the bench and was big for us defensively and got to the bucket a few times. Miranda had 13 rebounds and Trinity (Roberts) had 10 rebounds, but Icess was the key with the way she handled the basketball. She didn’t turn it over, she got to the cup when we needed her to get to the cup, she directed traffic and when I told her we needed to run it out that’s what she did.”
The Lady Lions trailed 10-5 after one quarter and 23-16 at halftime, a deficit that grew to 31-20 with 4:32 left in the third period as Brownwood looked out of sync on both ends of the floor.
“Our defense was just good enough to let us hang around in the first half, but offensively we could not score,” Hohertz said. “We couldn’t hit layups, couldn’t hit free throws, and we had one three-pointer. I hope we learn from this and don’t come out as slow going forward, and continue to get better from here.”
Brownwood (2-0) will be back in action at 6:15 p.m. Tuesday, playing its third consecutive game at Warren Gym to start the season as the Sweetwater Lady Mustangs pay a visit.
